Bullets, cars and handcuffs

Sitting in class, senior Brian Sharp does his best to remain awake. Dull lectures are like sleeping pills to him. One look at him during class and you can see Sharp feeling one of those moments. He quickly falls asleep and slams his head onto his desk.\nBut this classroom is not like most classrooms. Although these students must endure lectures and videotapes, they also learn how to drive fast, shoot straight and fight criminals.\nTo train to be an IU police officer, students have to go through comprehensive training at their annual police academy to master several skills they feel are needed to work effectively as a police officer.\nTraining includes at least 600 hours of classroom work. Sixteen tests incorporating physical fitness standards, practicums and academic paperwork must be passed before they can obtain their certifications to work as police officers in Indiana.\n"The scope of classes they receive is huge and is reflective of what Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and IUPD feels they need to have to interact fairly and competently to deal with the public," said IUPD Sergeant David Rhodes, who serves as second in command of the IUPD Academy. \nThe first hands-on training the students receive involves the skills needed to out-drive criminals in a car chase in the part of training called emergency vehicle operations.\nFirst, cadets must complete eight hours of classroom training. After hitting the books, the students get to hit the roads. Each cadet spends 16 hours in a Ford Crown Victoria dodging and weaving parking cones on an obstacle course set up in the purple lot of the Memorial Stadium.\nCadets learn how to drive in a pursuit, avoid other cars with evasive maneuvers and drive much faster than normal.\n"The cadets learn all the skills they need to drive with due regard for the rest of the population in any situations," said emergency vehicle operations instructor Lt. Jerry Minger.\nIn the next segment of training, cadets get to know their guns inside and out.\nIn preparation for the firearms training, cadets receive 12 hours of classroom work where they learn the circumstances required for the use of deadly force. \nAfter the classroom training, they spend 40 hours at the ILEA's outdoor range at Plainfield, Ind.\nIUPD's handgun training uses their standard issue Glock 9mm semi-automatic. Each cadet will fire this gun over 1,000 times learning how do be an accurate shot.\nRhodes said the cadets must shoot an 80 percent score from certain distances within certain time limits.\nAfter qualifications comes the combat shooting section where cadets learn in an environment that recreates the stresses and scenarios that could lead up to a police officer getting into a shootout. Officer-involved shootings statistically happen within distances of 3 to 5 feet and usually last 10 seconds or less.\nRhodes said combat shooting is "trying to teach more realistically incorporating speed, movement, concealment, and stress."\nIn this training segment, the Cadets had to crouch behind a window and fire at a target. They moved to a mailbox and fired from behind that. The cadets then ducked behind some tires and fired off two rounds in what is called a "double-tap."\n"We're training them under stress so if they ever get in an actual fight they have the 'been there done that' mentality, so they will be able to function against the chemical change in your body because of stress," Rhodes said.\nRhodes said range week is not about gripping a cold steel and spraying bullets everywhere, it's about reacting to adrenaline and being able to know when and when not to fire.\nWhen the cadets were finished with weapons training, most cadets felt more comfortable with using a firearm. \n"All the instructors did a fantastic job in teaching us how to use our weapon. I had never shot before and I came out as Top Gun," said recently graduated Officer Chad Oehme, a junior who earned recognition at the Aug. 16 ceremony as being the No. 1 shot of his entire class.\nIn the final segment of training, called physical tactics, the cadets are taught how to take control of a situation with reaching for your holster.\n"Physical tactics is your ability to perceive and react to a situation which may include taking control of a situation, escorting someone away from a scene, fighting, stopping fights, and calming situations," Rhodes said. "No one wants to fight. The officer can get hurt, the subject can get hurt. Whenever you can talk yourself out of a situation, it's 100 percent better." \nIn this part of the training, Lt. John G. Butler, who heads up the IUPD's training section, teaches something called "Verbal Judo." This communication theory teaches officers conversation techniques which should help them talk themselves out of those situations and persuade people to do things voluntarily they may not have wanted to do at first.\nJunior and recent graduate Joe Henry said the experience taught him important life skills.\n"The instructors push us to our limits and see how well we can handle it," Henry said. "I gained a greater respect not only for the various instructors and what they do but also for my classmates. We've come together as a group which needed to happen. In the beginning, everyone was a little timid and skeptical of each other. But as the weeks go by, everyone is slowly putting their guards down and creating more of a team."\nFor more information about the IUPD Academy, contact the IUPD at 855-0760.\n-- Contact staff writer Brandon Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu